The traditional Easter cake is defended in small workshops with chocolate figures

Many monkeys today wear a scrunchie that they didn't wear in the past: chocolate.

The authentic Monas de Pascua came out of the bakery workshops, they were brioche masses with a hard-boiled egg in the center, which were eaten at Easter, ending the abstinences of Lent.

Although it is much more present in Mediterranean regions, many communities have some version of this sweet, which presents slight variations in the dough and customs regarding the day of consumption.

In most places, tradition dictates that it is the godparents who give the mona to their godchildren.

Since globalization has diluted what is genuine, this type of cuteness has been decreasing and many children receive chocolate figures.

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In Catalonia, where cocoa reigns in the shop windows, some bakeries that make brioche mona resist, some with a hard-boiled egg in the center, but many only add a chocolate one.

The contest for the best Easter cake, organized by the Mr. and Mrs. Cake agency for five years, has been a boost because it has divided the prize into two categories, traditional and chocolate.

Daniel Jordà, this year's winner, says that the contest has increased the level and number of people who participate year after year.

In his Creative Breads workshop, these days he makes monas daily, which are also called Cristina in the Barcelona area.

Since she was a child she saw them being made in her parents' workshop, in the Trinitat oven, and she continued the tradition when she opened her own bakery thirteen years ago.

It seems to this baker that traditional monas continue to be made more in the towns.

One reason is that the city empties a lot during these vacation days and people buy them in coastal or mountain places.

“We want to recover childhood memories and feelings,” he says.

In fact, he recognizes that more older people buy these sweets.

Before putting the dough in the oven, Daniel Jordà puts a hard-boiled egg in the center.Albert Garcia (Albert Garcia)

The moment in which Daniel Jordà bathes the dough of the mona in almond sheets.Albert Garcia (Albert Garcia)

The traditional mona is made completely by hand at Panes Creativos.Albert Garcia (Albert Garcia)

Traditional monas are made of brioche, with recipes that vary depending on the area, with hard-boiled egg.Albert Garcia (Albert Garcia)

“It is a very good product and it has been abandoned for the chocolate figure,” laments this baker who adds a little boiled potato to the brioche dough, which contains olive oil, flour, egg yolk and sugar.

“The yolk acts as an emulsifier between the water and the oil and the potato gives it moisture so that the sponginess lasts longer,” he says in his workshop.

In addition, a good touch of anise gives it a very sweet flavor.

Every day they have the small size, 200 grams, and on Easter days they will have the 400 gram size, which can also be ordered to order.

For those days, the presentation will be more modern, advance.

They will deliver it inside a box with all the elements of tradition: the feather dusters, the chicks and the hard-boiled or chocolate eggs, making a nod to the

do-it-yourself style

that is so fashionable.

In the city there are other bakeries where the charm endures and one of them is the Turris bakery chain, which despite its great growth maintains the spirit of a neighborhood bakery, where you can find the most typical preparations.

They have been selling brioche cakes here for a few days now and for the designated days they will also have a chocolate cake with an egg and feather dusters.

In the Faixat pastry shop, the brioche-type mona and the cake type also coexist, a version that arrived many years after the bakery mona, which has its origins in the 15th century according to historians.

In their case the cake is made of butter and upon request they decorate it to taste: with colored feathers, chicks and some chocolate figures.

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At Casa Vives, one of the city's historic pastry shops, with a location in the center and another in Sants, you can now order three varieties of pastries, with fruit, truffle, and yolk and truffle flavors, always decorated with the typical elements.

Chocolate figures are also displayed in their window and only on Easter days will they make the oldest brioche cake.

Even so, there are many pastry shops that mainly offer chocolate figures, some of them authentic and with high prices, since chocolate is one of the most expensive ingredients in pastries and, in recent months, it has become more expensive due to the high cost of cocoa.

Production has decreased due to poor harvests due to climatic issues, especially in the countries with the highest production, in West Africa.

In the towns, the tradition is maintained and monas are often a snack these days.

At the Rovira de Cardedeu bakery, which came in third place in the competition for the best traditional mona in Catalonia, they are faithful to customs.

Theirs is a brioche with almonds and is accompanied by a hard-boiled egg, but if the customer asks for it with chocolate they also add it, they say.

Also from a town came the baker who received the second prize, Marc Martí, from the Obrador Forn Artesà de Prades.

But being in a small place is not always a sign of survival.

In Can Puig, in Arenys de Munt, they stopped making them just this year, but Xavi Puig says that it is because of the work they do.

“We will end up doing some,” he adds.

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Where the tradition of the mona is deeply rooted is in the Valencian Community and Murcia.

In the southern part of the Valencian region they call it toña, and Raúl Asencio is a staunch defender of this bun.

“We make it different,” he says.

If it is normally an egg brioche with oil or butter and sugar, the dough he makes has a lot of other ingredients: baked sweet potato and pumpkin, whole orange and potato.

With all this, the dough is placed in a two-centimetre mold and, since it cannot expand, it rises, helped by the butter, which gives it structure.

Then he paints it with egg and adds sugar.

He crowns it with the hard-boiled egg or with a more childish version, a Kinder Bueno.

He remembers that he started using it when his son, who is now thirty years old, was a child.

Toña by the Valencian baker Raúl Asencio.

Instead, he only adds Gema Candela potatoes, from the Califa bakery, in Crevillent (Alicante).

He says that he makes it every Friday throughout the year, but these days of Easter they make it every day.

She does use a little sourdough and adds lemon, “like our grandmothers did in the old days,” she points out, while she clarifies that her oven is wood-burning.

For the little ones, they give the dough some shape, like a snail, and it is a fun snack.

The individual measure is also widely taken for breakfast and the large piece, which weighs about 430 grams, is bought by people to eat with the family.

“At least we are going to make 1,500 large toñas,” she says, in addition to the small ones.

This bun is eaten throughout Valencia during Holy Week and its name changes depending on the area.

It is also called

panquemao

and is eaten with Easter sausage.

The Guild of Bakers and Pastry Chefs of Valencia organizes a contest to find the best Easter sweets and this year the first prize has gone to La Tahona del Abuelo, which has three stores, in Cabañal, in Xúquer and in Serrería.

Their mona is called Basque and is a bun dipped in chocolate.

Further down, in Murcia, the tradition also remains well-rooted.

Javier Moreno, from La Madrugada, with his first bakery in the Beniaján district and a recently opened one in the capital, says that mona is consumed all year round, but much more at Easter.

It is customary for the Nazarenes to distribute monkeys in processions, so the small ones, about 20 grams, are made in large quantities.

Sometimes accompanied by chicken eggs and sometimes quail eggs, as well as chocolate - the least - it is a very popular sweet.

“Here they are made with olive or sunflower oil and they always contain some citrus such as orange juice and the peel of the same orange or lemon,” he explains, and he adds a little sweet potato and butter to the dough.

Those from the Bonache pastry shop are also among the most recognized in the capital.

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The long-standing tradition of the Easter cake continues in other communities such as Almería, Aragón or Castilla-La Mancha, where they call it sleeping bread and it also has eggs.

Over time, it has spread to other communities and in many places the chocolate figures are a success among the little ones.

But what is surely a thing of the past is the custom of making it at home and taking it to bake in the community oven.

That is, it is difficult for him to come back.

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